The present invention relates to heat exchange apparatus and more particularly to heat exchange apparatus useful for the cooling or heating of two bodies that are moving with respect to each other.
The cooling of equipment wherein the parts to be cooled are: 1) moving linearly or rotationally with respect to a heat absorption system; 2) not amenable (difficult or impossible) to direct contact with a heat collector or coolant: or 3) immersed in a vacuum poses difficult and unique heat exchange problems. In such cases, it is difficult to place heat conducting substances between a part to be cooled and a heat collector.
Thermal radiation cooling is widely used in many such applications, sometimes in combination with convective cooling, in the form of heat dissipation, i.e. heat transfer from the hot portion(s) to the surrounding environment. Since the heat flux in a cooling system is directly proportional to the surface area of the hot portion facing the cold environment, the dissipation of large heat fluxes requires very large surface areas and is, in many cases, impractical. This is especially true in applications where space is at a premium and relatively large convective heat exchange systems cannot be used.
Thus, there exists a need for heat transfer apparatus that is capable of achieving adequate heat transfer in such applications, especially in those cases where space constraints dictate that the heat exchange apparatus be as compact as possible.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a heat exchange apparatus that is capable of achieving high heat fluxes in designs wherein: the parts to be cooled are moving linearly or rotationally with respect to each other; direct contact between parts(s) to be cooled and a heat collector or coolant is undesirable or impossible; or the part to be cooled is immersed in a vacuum.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a heat exchange apparatus that is capable of achieving high heat fluxes in the just recited situations in a compact configuration.
According to the present invention, there is provided a heat exchange apparatus comprising a coolant conduit or heat sink having attached to its surface a first radial array of spaced-apart parallel plate fins or needles and a second radial array of spaced-apart parallel plate fins or needles thermally coupled to a body to be cooled and meshed with, but not contacting the first radial array of spaced-apart parallel plate fins or needles.